Tuesday, November 25, 2008

PennyPinchingParent.com has teamed up with YouCanMakeThis.com to offer a great bundle of patterns worth $50. Check out the PPP website to see exactly what patterns are included in this bundle, and then be sure to check out the YCMT website to see what a great variety they offer. There is something there to appeal to every sort of crafter. There's even a promo code for 10% off your order until Dec. 10: Penny10. I'm loving the little reversible apron dress at the top of this post, and I may have to grab it up with the 10% off coupon!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Look what I woke up to this morning! Yuck...it's cold out. It's only November, we really shouldn't be getting this stuff now, should we? I'd like to know who is responsible for this. As a transplanted California girl, this is not my favorite season. At least the kids are thrilled. I should say some of them, that is. When I opened the goat barn this morning, the girls barely wanted to step outside. Even with the lure of their food, they took a couple minutes to conquer their snowy misgivings. Being February babies, I'm sure they have seen snow before, but this is the first snow this season. It was a bit comical. Note to self: remembering gloves for winter feeding times will prevent painful frozen fingers!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Well, hopefully the "high point" (insert huge eye roll) of our week was yesterday. Finn had been coloring with some colored pencils and he showed us one that had the tip broken off. He said something along the lines of "pencil in nose." I asked if he had a pencil in his nose and he said yes. Now he does tend to say yes to more things than he means, so it doesn't always mean yes just because he says it. But we pulled the flashlight out, laid him across Daddy's lap and took a peek up his nose. Sure enough, there is a bright blue pencil lead peeking back out at us! We attempted to use tweezers to extricate said lead with no success and plenty of screaming. I called the doctor's office, they said emergency room. We took him to the local hospital--uggh...such a waste of time. Remind me to bypass completely in future! On the plus side, they saw us very quickly. However, they didn't get the lead and managed to knock it further back. At this point, the doctor says, "I'm going to transfer you to another hospital where they have specialists who are better equipped to deal with this. I'm afraid of doing more damage than good at this point if I continue." We turned down ambulance transportation and drove an hour to the other hospital. (Second time we'd had to go to Charleston that day--earlier dentist appointment for Paul.) That emergency room was much busier and we spent five hours there. Turns out that the lead must have been swallowed or something. Maybe the first doctors efforts that pushed it back further into his sinuses pushed it enough to have it be swallowed. They did a bunch of xrays and couldn't find any sign of it. So we were sent home and told signs to watch for in case it had been inhaled into his lung (which was the other place it could have gone if he hadn't swallowed it.) He slept until nearly 11 this morning, but is up now with no signs of trauma. Made it home about 11pm when all was said and done. Great time had by all! (sarcasm)

Moral of the story: No more colored pencils for Finnie! Seriously, it could have just as easily been nearly anything. One of the ER nurses said they get M&M's in a lot. Why eat it when you can stuff it up your nose?

As a followup to my last post, the bread turned out great. I'm going to try half and half next week with the wheat flour. When I'm out of wheat, I think I'll buy some rye flour and give it a try. Ivy's review was that it was pretty good, but she likes the regular better.

And finally, I thought I'd post a picture of Holly's tooth--the new bane of my life. You can just barely see that little white lump down in the front. She has been taking teething much harder than either of the other two did. I can't wait for her to get the whole set in and be done with it! I did think this picture was particularly cute, though.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

For the last few months, I am happy to say I have been making my own bread from a sourdough starter that I also made myself. This morning I decided to try two new things with it--1. substitute honey for the sugar, 2. use wheat flour. I used the same amount of honey as the recipe calls for sugar and reduced the liquids by 1/8 cup. And I substituted 1/3 of the bread flour for wheat flour. We'll see how it turns out.

Now I'll be leaving it to rise for the day while we go to Joann's. (Yay!) Thread is on sale for 1/2 off and so are clearance fabrics. If only the notions wall was, it'd be the perfect sale! Did I mention there is a save an addition 10% off your entire purchase coupon in the ad? I'm trying not to blow the budget too bad though because I happen to love their Black Friday sale, and that is just around the corner.

Monday, November 10, 2008

One of these days (years?), our kitchen is getting an overhaul to be more spacious and functional. Until then, every time I find something I like, Paul tells me to save the picture. So I'm getting a collection of torn out magazine pages so I don't have to remember all the ideas that I love. So here's another idea that looks like a keeper.

The Post-It Place is hosting a give-away of a magnetic spice rack. This rack can take care of the clutter of spices that may be crowding counter or cabinet space. Plus it just looks nifty and attractive to have your spices in plain view like this. I actually have a similar, a lot smaller, item in my sewing room on the wall next to my sewing machine. So maybe that is why I like it so much; I just never thought of it in the kitchen.

Would you look at that crazy bed-head! Somebody needs a haircut, but I've been putting it off. He's had a total of three haircuts up until now. Nanny from England gave him his first haircut and his most recent. I took the shears to his head between times. Now little mister was perfectly behaved for Nanny both times, but when I did it he screamed, "Ouch, ouch!" the whole time. And I promise I didn't nick his ear even once, although it was particularly nerve wracking since he wouldn't hold still at all. I suppose I will have to give in and do it again since his grandparents aren't going to be here again until March. Maybe he'll be nicer to me this time!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Chocolate Fingerprints is giving away a tutu from Naptime Creations on their blog right now. Can I just say how cute both names of those blogs are? I couldn't resist clicking the link for Chocolate Fingerprints from another blog just on name cuteness alone and I was rewarded by finding this contest. Heavens knows my house is full of fingerprints--some of them are probably even chocolate knowing Finn's enthusiasm for all things chocolate! And I can totally relate to only having time to create when little ones are napping. Getting two to nap at the same time is the real challenge. Actually, they are both asleep at the moment, but I'm not in my sewing room because Holly is using me for a pillow and she will almost certainly wake up within 2 minutes of being put down, so that only leaves me enough time to frustrate myself.

Well, really an afternoon. It was so pretty yesterday and being that there was also no school, I gave in to Ivy's plea to go to the park when we went to town. I wasn't the only parent with the same idea. It was really busy with little kids. Our highlight was carrying Finn back to the car kicking and screaming because he wasn't ready to leave yet.

I was hoping for a picture of all three together, but planned to get it when we were leaving since I was wearing Holly. Unfortunately that didn't happen because of Finn's extreme disappointment leaving the park. At least I got pictures of all three of them.

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About This Blogger

I am a thirty-something mother of two girls and a boy ranging from preschool to middle school. My husband and I keep working and reworking on our goal of raising our family healthier. Our house is a constant work under construction--adding on and remodeling. We're happy to have bought our property a few years ago, but as any homeowners know, owning a home just adds to your list of projects and chores because there's always improvements to be made and maintenance to be done. On our burgeoning homestead, we have chickens, guineas, a few goats, and our most recent additions-rabbits.

About This Blog

I picked the name Petalz and Finza couple years ago when I decided to try Etsy out. I wanted to custom make some baby related items and have things for girls and boys. I felt the name incorporated both my kids (at the time) into it--petalzfor Ivy and finzfor Finn.

I haven't had time to do much of anything with my Etsy for a while, but it's still my in my long term goals. In the mean time, I'm having fun with this blog thing. I've found some creative inspiration through my own posting, but also through many other wonderful blogs out there.